Mass-asymmetric fission in the ⁴⁰Ca+¹⁴²Nd reaction

Abstract

Shell effects play a major role in fission. Mass-asymmetric fission observed in the spontaneous and low energy fission of actinide nuclei was explained by incorporating the fragment shell properties in liquid drop model. Asymmetric fission has also been observed in the low energy fission of neutron-deficient 180Hg nuclei in recent β-delayed fission experiments. This low-energy β-delayed fission has been explained in terms of strong shell effects in pre-scission configurations associated with the system after capture. Calculations predicted asymmetric fission for heavier Hg isotopes as well, at compound nuclear excitation energy as high as 40 MeV. To explore the evolution of fission fragment mass distribution as a function of neutron and proton numbers and also with excitation energy, fission fragment mass distributions have been measured for the 40Ca+142Nd reaction forming the compound nucleus 182Hg at energies around the capture barrier, using the Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility and CUBE spectrometer at the Australian National University. Mass-asymmetric fission is observed in this reaction at an excitation energy of 33.6 MeV. The results are consistent with the β-delayed fission measurements and indicate the presence of shell effects even at higher exciation energies